Chapter Notes: Caleb's POV
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- 'I don't care, party anywhere. I'm broke, man, possibly beyond repair.' -
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'They were going to pay for this', I had mentally chanted repeatedly throughout the night. A thorough ass-kicking, training session had Rickon and Declan's names written all over it. Not only had I been forced to endure the ridiculously loud and obnoxious noise considered by many as 'music', but had to do so while in the company of the twins' equally loud and obnoxious friends.
I looked at the newly turned twenty-one year old twins. Rickon had been entertaining his latest girlfriend of the month while Declan tried his damn hardest to remove himself out of the line of sight of one particular red head and her swarm of friends—all of who managed to worm their way into our VIP section of the Godawful Toronto club.
I had secluded myself off in the corner long ago. For the majority of the night I kept myself occupied with my phone and mentally created a payback list while trying to secure myself at a safe enough distance away from the crowd and on-lookers down below.
"Caleb!"
My head shot up at the call from one of my betas, Chase, who was seated on one of the sofas across the room. He had been arguing with my other beta, Kane, moments prior, and as always—and for the sake of my sanity—I had tuned both of my seconds in command out.
"Yes, Chase?" I made little attempt to hide my irritation nor disguise the obvious look of annoyance that was surely written on my face.
Beside Chase, Kane smirked and shook his head while he entertained a blonde--who appeared to be superglued to his arm--as a very upset looking brunette scolded the woman with an envious look.
"Uh, never mind. Sorry." Chase lowered his gaze then turned back and argued with Kane some more. The two of them seemed to disagree more than they ever agreed on anything.
I glanced back down at my phone at the time. It had only been three hours yet it seemed as though I had been trapped inside the club for an eternity. But torturous as it may have been, my love for my pack was undeniable and unquestionable; the very reason why I had kept my mouth shut the entire night.
Everything I did was for them. Everything I was, they had made me. A leader. An alpha. So it was only for them that I would ever entertain the idea of being stuffed inside of a club on the night of a full moon.
My wolf had not attempted to hide his own discomfort and anguish over being caged on the night of all nights. He, too, had prepared his own list of ways to pay me back, and I couldn't help but smirk to myself at the thought. I anxiously awaited the punishment he had in store for me, welcomed it and challenged him in return. Before the night was over, before the moon had a chance to retreat, we would both be reminded of who was truly in control.
At some point in the night—amidst my attempts to deal with the headache that the over-produced music blasting through the speakers had given me—I was caught off guard by a foreign yet tantalizing scent. My wolf instantly abandoned his plans of revenge and, instead, fought tooth and nail to inch his way to the surface.
I had learned and mastered how to control him many years ago—never had to do much more than command him to stand down—but, in that moment, the threat of losing control was a very real possibility. My wolf had latched onto the scent and was determined to locate the source.
As was I.
I stood and charged over to the window that enabled a view of the club below. My eyes scanned the crowd, skipping over the sea of bodies until they rested upon one figure in particular. As soon as I looked at her, my wolf—who had been raging and thrashing around like an ignorant little pup with no damned sense—fell silent. The whole room, the whole club—hell, the whole damned universe—seemed to have been captured by silence once my eyes landed on her.
My entire body was immediately consumed with an overwhelming feeling of peace, yet my chest felt as thought it had been struck by an unrecognizable pressure. And I wanted nothing more than to be wrapped inside of it and beg for it to drag me under, to be drowned and swallowed by its presence.
I unclenched the fists I had not even realized were balled up and relaxed them at my sides.
This was it. The moment every wolf waited and anticipated for: the moon Goddess' gift, given only to those who she deemed worthy. The gift of your mate. And if the psychotic behaviour of my wolf moments prior that had been sparked by just her scent alone was not enough of an indication, I was pretty damned certain that Luna's gift had just been signed, sealed and delivered due to the overwhelming need and desire to claim her.
"Caleb, what is it? What's wrong?" Kane's voice came from behind me, but it was not enough to distract me from the girl below. I kept my sight trained on her. I watched as she worked her way through the crowd, holding on tightly to the hand of a girl I could only assume to be her friend.
"It appears that I have just found my mate."
Within seconds, I sensed my pack behind me. I knew it would not take them much time before they got over the disbelief and realized just what exactly my finding my mate entailed. My pack and I were the only wolves in the club, meaning that my mate—Luna's most cherished gift to her children—was a human.
While keeping her in my line of vision, I began to count to five in my head, but only made it to three when I heard the anticipated laughter from my pack. I did not fault them for their reactions, for I, too, was convinced that Luna must have been playing some sort of cruel joke on me. I mean, she must have been, right?
Again, I zoned in on her, taking in her brown skin, the wild curls of her hair, the simple black dress that hugged her body and generously showed off her curves. Although the dim lighting in the club had not done much to display her in the way she deserved to be displayed, I knew that she had a beautiful face. And my wolf and I were equally determined to come face to face with that beauty, come hell or high water.
I turned, sliced my way through my pack and made my way to the club below. Every second that passed without having her in my sights became torturous. I searched the crowd, keeping track of her scent until I found her. Once again, I felt that pressure on my chest. All around us, silence emerged as if time itself had stopped; that earlier feeling of peace flowed throughout my entire body and stilled me in my tracks.
She still held on to her friend's hand as they desperately tried to make their way through the unruly crowd. As they continued along their journey, she got bumped by a random guy, which caused her to stumble. I swear on the four that I was mere milliseconds away from acting upon the urge to tear the guy apart from limb to limb for touching her but his life had been spared. Not by me nor my wolf—nor the grace of Luna—but by her. Somehow, her attention had been coerced in my direction and all thoughts of assault obeyed her unspoken cease and desist command, bringing my full attention to her and her alone.
I only managed to take a step towards her before she was once again pulled off by her friend. As if my body had been under her complete control, I was able to move by my own free will once she disappeared into the crowd and was no longer within my reach. Once thrusted back into reality, I instantly remembered who I was and everything that I had no business forgetting. Despite my wolf's best efforts to will me to move and find her, I turned and exited the club.
My betas were by my side in no time; they must have sensed my unease. The streets were bombarded with people exiting and entering the club and dampened by the night's earlier down pour. Yet none of that was able to drown out her scent, which had already implanted itself not only in my memory but within my very being-a far worse place for it to take root.
"Caleb," Chase spoke first, "you look like you can use a run."
"If I let him out, I don't doubt for one second that I'll head straight back here." To her.
"At least go talk to her," Kane said. "That is, if she will even let you talk to her. I'm sure those creepy glares and that thirty-seconds-too-long staring match did nothing in your favour."
I shot him an 'I'm-not-in-the-mood" glare, which only caused him to laugh.
"You're an alpha, with the power of the four coursing through your veins. I've seen you take down animals triple your size without breaking a God-damned sweat! I've seen women pass out when you looked in their direction. Don't you dare tell me that little girl scares you. Ha! The rest of the pack will never believe it! Caleb, weakened by a human—" He stopped himself before he finished and immediately lowered his eyes to the ground. I did not have to use the blue or yellow to know why he had.
"I'd watch how I talk about his mate if I were you, Kane." Chase challenged, and Kane responded by finally lifting his head, though his eyes knew better than to seek out mine. "Look, Caleb, you need to relax. Call on the green. You need to keep the other three in check."
I was already making my way back inside the club, not bothering to heed Chase's warning. What I needed to do was find her. I had only one thing on my mind and stabilizing my thoughts, emotions, and desires was far from my intention. My sights were set on the human girl that bewitched me. It was her who was fueling my desire, who had my mind racing, and my emotions scattered all over the place. I needed to find her, talk to her, be with her.
I sliced through the ever-evolving crowd yet again, tracking her scent amongst all the other ones that harassed my nostrils. My anger rose when I could not find her but was quickly replaced with confusion and annoyance when I spotted Kane talking to her friend. I stormed towards the two, glaring at Kane the entire walk over.
"Ah, Caleb, there you are! I'd like you to meet Kasey. Kasey, this is my best friend, Caleb."
The friend was tall, with long brown hair and tanned skin that complimented the red dress she was wearing. Piercing blue eyes stared back at me, and as they held contact with my own, I couldn't help but notice that there had not been a hint of warmth within the dark pools.
"Kasey also happens to be friends with Jennifer. Isn't that such a coincidence, Caleb?"
I tore my gaze away from the highly unamused girl and looked back at Kane. "Who?"
Kane laughed. "Jennifer. You know, Rickon's girlfriend."
So that was the name of the girl Rickon had spent much of his time with the entire night? I had never actually met her until that night, though I knew she was his latest girlfriend. Just as I knew that the month was almost over, meaning that she would soon become yet another girl whose name I did not care to know nor wish to remember. As much as it was not right to play around with girls and their hearts, I could not fault my delta on his actions. She was not-nor were any of the girls from his past-Rickon's true mate, which meant there was no real reason to bring them around the pack or into a world they knew nothing about. Dating was something that the younger wolves indulged themselves with in attempt to appear normal. Once upon a time, I had done the exact same thing. The only difference was that, eventually, I had been forced to grow up.
"Who was the girl you were with earlier?" I asked her directly as my eyes returned to her cold ones.
Confusion spread across her face, and then-as if it was never there-that initial reaction had turned defensive, her expression nothing less than serious. She turned to face me completely and even dared to take a step closer as she lifted a hand to clutch the silver necklace I hadn't even noticed she had on because it had been hidden underneath the top of her dress. A pendant hung from it, but my eyes could not make it out because it had been covered by her fist. "She's not interested so stay away from her." Even her damned voice was cold. But before I could object, she had already brushed past me and escaped into the crowd.
Inside, my wolf stirred. The challenge that Kasey had just sent, an attempt he took as a means to deter us from finding our mate, was not something that he was going to take laying down.
Even with the awful music still blasting, Kane's laughter filled my ears. And I did not know if I was thankful or further annoyed by it. "Ava-Rain," he whispered in my ear and followed up with a pat on my shoulder. "And she's headed this way, brother."
"What?" I turned to look at my beta but he had already disappeared into the crowd as well. I twisted, turned and looked in every direction until my eyes landed on their target: Ava-Rain.
How the hell had Kane managed to get her name out of the ice princess?
I walked towards her, my eyes not once breaking away from hers. Not even to blink. When I was no more than a couple of feet away, she lowered her head and her gaze fell to the floor. Even so, I continued to approach her. Suddenly, I felt like a teenage boy—not the twenty-three year old alpha I prided myself in being—worried about what I should say, what might offend her, whether she would trust me or not. So you could only imagine my surprise when after reaching Ava-Rain that she was the first to speak. The music had suddenly lost its overly unnecessary bass and the song that came on happened to be much softer and slower. It was as if Luna herself was making sure that this union happened as easily as possible.
She looked up at me with dark, apologetic eyes. "I hope my friend didn't say anything to offend you or your friend," her voice had been raised slightly due to the music, "she's kind of head-strong." She offered me a soft smile as one of her hands began to rub her arm in a nervous kind of way.
My mouth yearned to return the smile but I managed to refrain from doing so. "And very protective," I replied.
It was true. It was hard not to have noticed the protectiveness over Ava-Rain that consumed her friend. I had sensed it even before she opened her mouth to warn me to stay away. Hell, it was protectiveness and love in their purest forms. I knew this because it was the same protectiveness and love that I held for my own pack. When it came to friends and family, one would do anything and everything to protect them. It was obvious that my mate and the Kasey girl were good friends, but there was a different sort of protectiveness in Kasey's attitude and body language that I had picked up on.
I continued to stare at Ava-Rain and took every opportunity that presented itself each and every time her brown eyes diverted from mine to take her in completely. Like I already knew, her beauty was undeniable and definitely meant to be displayed. Whether in the light of the moon or the light of the sun, Ava-Rain was destined to be viewed by only the upmost worthy, not detained inside of a club and gawked at by any pair of eyes other than my own. I easily towered over her tiny frame. My own white skin contrasted with her brown skin, skin I longed to reach out and touch—to confirm my suspicions of it truly being as soft as it looked—but I kept my hands to myself. Her dress stopped just above her knees, and a pair of classic black and white Chucks adorned her feet. I might have been able to refrain a smile earlier, but a smirk managed to escape that time.
My eyes retreated back to her face, which had been framed beautifully by her wild mass of ebony curls. Despite her best efforts to hide her discomfort, it still showed in her body language as she continued to fidget with her hands. Her eyes alternated between holding my gaze for a few seconds, dropping to the floor then scanning the bodies that surrounded us before finding their way back to mine. Had I been intimidating her? Was she frightened by me? Her nervousness and shyness amused and infuriated me all at the same time. Never had I wanted so desperately to know another's thoughts, to learn what made them laugh, smile, frown, and cry; their fears, joys, hopes and dreams; their very essence. Not knowing any of those things had been complete and utter torture.
"I should go find my friend." Her soft voice forced me out of my thoughts and relieved some of the unintentional torture that she had been putting me through. Ava-Rain turned and was about to walk away when I reached out and stopped her.
I grabbed her arm a bit more roughly than I anticipated but my grip was hardly firm enough to cause any harm. Yet my wolf winced at the grab and forced me to drop my hand. When she turned to face me once again, I had already closed the space between us, which caused her to look up at me. She was so tiny, so delicate, so human. I knew that I had overstepped my boundaries by being so close, but my burning desire for her along with my wolf's dire need to claim her had drowned out all of my good sense.
I wanted to touch her, to feel the warmth of her soft skin beneath my finger tips. I wanted to pull her into my arms, burry my head in her neck and simply bask in her scent. I wanted her, nothing more and nothing less because she was mine.
But I could not have her.
Overstepping my boundaries again, I placed my hand on the side of Ava-Rain's face. I gently cupped her cheek, not because she was human and fragile but because I was afraid that my touch might have tainted her beauty. My very presence in her life might have already done so. I already had one possible threat of a war haunting me, yet the war that I was beginning to feel internally seemed to be more real and the stakes would be much higher if I were to lose. Ignoring that Ava-Rain was human would not change that fact, nor would it do me any good if I accepted her place in my life or in my world. I may not have known what made her laugh, smile, frown or cry, but in a little more than twenty minutes I had grown to care for her, already felt her worming her way down to my core and leaving her mark on my very soul.
I felt no other choice but the one that I was about to make. Staying away from her was the best thing for her. As painful as it was going to be—to go against our very nature of claiming your mate—I had to walk away from her right then and there before I destroyed the beauty that she was and encompassed. "She's a good friend to have. Keep her close, Ava-Rain."
Mustering up what little strength I had left, I used it to remove my hand from her face and walked away. I had to remember who and what I was, the band of brothers that was my pack and their faith and hope in me to protect them against any and all threats. Despite the pressure on my chest—which had turned into an irritatingly painful ache the further I walked away from my mate—knowing that I was keeping her safe had made it all worth it.
It had to be.
My wolf was truly lashing out at that point. Its attempts to break free included the tactic of pushing Ava-Rain's scent to the surface to attack my sense of smell and bombard my thoughts. I hardly expected him to play fair; I could not fault him for seeking what was rightfully ours. But we had a responsibility, first and foremost, to our pack. And as their alpha, that responsibility entailed forsaking anything and everything that we may have briefly felt for Ava-Rain.
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Authour's Note: Loved it? Hated it? I'd love to know what you all think so far! :)